“When I think of all I have done for you, Caroline! Of how I have sacrificed for you in order to get you into the best circles! And now you throw it all back in my face!”
“Stop.” Caroline held up a hand. “I told you, guilt won’t work on me.”
“It’s that Kindred!” the other mother raged. “He’s gotten into your mind, somehow! He’s brainwashed you. For the past several days, you’ve not been yourself at all. And I know you’ve been sneaking around with him—Mary Ann told me about how your chemise was torn and your corset strings were all in knots after the ball the other night.”
So now she knew for certain which side the lady’s maid was on, Caroline thought. Well, good to know. She hoped to be done with Mary Ann as well as the other mother very soon.
“May I remind you that Richard and I are married?” she said icily. “I was hardly sneaking around with him. I was exercising my rights as a wife to spend the night with her husband.”
The other mother’s face grew pale.
“Please tell me that you did not consummate the Joining he forced you into last night!” she exclaimed.
“That’s none of your business,” Caroline said evasively. But her expression must have given her away because the other mother sighed in relief.
“I know that look, young lady—you may pretend all you like but you have not done the marital deed with that horrid Kindred. You’d tell me outright if you had.”
“I said, it’s none of your business,” Caroline repeated.
“No matter.” The other mother waved her hand, as though brushing the whole matter aside. “As long as you’re still pure, Lord Harkens will be happy to have you.”
“How many times do I have to tell you, I do not want to be married to Lord Harkens?” Caroline was beginning to feel like nothing she said made any difference to the other mother at all—it all went in one ear and out the other.
“You’ll change your mind once you’re away from that horrid Kindred,” the other mother said, nodding sagely.
“I told you, I don’t want to get away from him. I love Richard!” Caroline exclaimed, thoroughly exasperated now.
At that moment, there was a knock on her door and Mary Ann entered with a full tea tray. She was followed by Richard, who gave Caroline an anxious look.
“Darling, I’ve just gotten an urgent call from a patient who needs me to attend him. Will you be all right if I leave for a moment and come back? I promise if I cannot make it back to the house in time, I will certainly meet you at the park.”
“You go ahead.” Caroline raised her chin. “I’ll meet you there and tell everyone we’re going to stay together.”
At this, she heard an indrawn breath from the other mother, but she chose to ignore it.
“Very well.” Richard nodded at her. “Until two o’clock then.”
“Goodbye. I love you,” Caroline told him, smiling. Despite everything the other mother was putting her through, she had one consolation—she would be ending her day with Richard and then spending the rest of her life with him. That was enough to cheer anyone up.
He smiled back. “I love you too, my darling.”
Then he left, closing the door behind him and leaving Caroline alone with the other mother and her duplicitous lady’s maid once more.
Caroline mentally braced herself for another attack but to her surprise, the other mother was silent.
“Will you have tea, Ma’am?” Mary Ann asked her but the other mother shook her head.
“I find myself unwell at the moment, Mary Ann. You may pour some for Miss Caroline, however. Please see that she is dressed appropriately for the announcement in the park. I am going to retire in my room for a few hours.”
“Yes, Ma’am. I will, Ma’am.” Mary Ann bobbed a respectful curtsey and the other mother exited the room without a single further word to Caroline.
As soon as she was gone, Mary Ann began laying out the tea things on the little table beside the bed.
“Well now, seeing as how you missed breakfast, I thought you might like some early tea, Miss,” she said to Caroline.
“All right. Thank you.” Caroline nodded grudgingly. She knew better than to trust the maid and she fully expected Mary Ann to work on her now that the other mother had gone. But to her surprise, the lady’s maid simply poured her a steaming cup of hot, sweet tea and handed it to her quietly.
Caroline took the teacup and sipped it while Mary Ann went about getting her afternoon dress ready. It was a flouncy pale green organdy with lots of tucks and gathers and entirely too many ribbons for Caroline’s taste.
I swear, once Richard and I get Bonded and move up to the Mother Ship, I’m never wearing a corset or those horrible hoop skirts again, she thought to herself as she sipped. And if they don’t have yoga pants there, I’m going to start the fashion myself. I’m tired of having to dress up everywhere I go—especially in such uncomfortable clothes.
As she sat and sipped and thought, she felt something wet on her front. Looking down, she was surprised to see that she had spilled tea on herself. How had that happened?
“Mary Ann,” she said to the maid, who was still working with the afternoon dress. “I seem…seem to have tead some spill—I mean spilled some tea on myself.”
It occurred to her that her speech sounded a little strange, but she wasn’t sure why.
“Yes, Miss. I’ll clean it up directly, Miss.” Mary Ann came forward and blotted the wet spot with a towel. Then she refilled Caroline’s teacup and put it in her hands. “Drink up now, while it’s hot,” she said briskly.
Caroline took another soothing sip. She had to hand it to the lady’s maid—she might be a spy for the other mother but she certainly made a good cup of tea. Although, it was very sweet. So sweet, in fact, that her tongue felt like it was going numb.
Wait—was that right? Caroline frowned and realized that her thoughts were growing somewhat fuzzy. What was happening? Why was her tongue all numb and tingly and why did her hands suddenly feel so weak she could hardly hold the teacup?
“Mary Ann,” she said again but this time it came out as, “Mer’Annnn,” with a definite slur. “Mer’Annnn, wha’s happening t’ me?” she managed to get out.
The lady’s maid gave her a sharp look and then nodded, as though to herself. She took the teacup, which was dangerously close to spilling, out of Caroline’s hands and set it firmly on the table. Then she stepped out of the room and walked briskly down the hallway. Caroline heard her rap sharply on a door and then Mary Ann’s voice said, “I think she’s ready now, Ma’am.”
“Oh good—excellent work, Mary Ann! I’ll go in to her and you run and fetch Dr. Lovings. He’s just downstairs waiting.”
“Yes, Ma’am,” Mary Ann’s voice said and then there was the sound of footsteps and the other mother came back into the room.
Caroline eyed her sharply—as sharply as she was able, anyway, now that she had a strange floaty sensation all over and everything felt fuzzy.
“Wha’s goin’ on?” she demanded, as strongly as she could. “Wha’s wrong w’ me?”
“That is to be determined. You’re to be examined, my dear—for your own good,” the other mother told her.
Caroline started to protest but just then the door opened again and Mary Ann reappeared, followed by a small, fussy-looking man in a dark suit. He had a thin black mustache and was carrying a black bag, not unlike Richard’s. Caroline realized he must be a doctor.
“Oh, Doctor Lovings, there you are!” the other mother exclaimed, confirming her suspicion. “Thank you ever so much for coming on such short notice.”
“Not at all, dear lady—happy to be of service.” The little man nodded genially. “Now then, your maid tells me that you have administered some of the medicine I dispensed to you into the patient’s tea to relax her. If this is so, let us proceed with the exam.”
“Ezam?” Caroline slurred. “What ez….ez…exam?” she got out at last.
“Why, an exam to find
out the cause of your willfulness and hysteria, my dear young lady.” Doctor Lovings spoke briskly as he reached for her. “Now if you would be so good as to hold still…”
With horror, Caroline remembered the other mother’s threat that she would have to have her “womb examined.” She felt a sudden rush of energy and fear penetrate the fog she had somehow fallen into and she sat up straighter on the bed.
“Stay ‘way from me!” she shouted, putting out a hand to ward him off. “Don’ touch my womb!”
“Your womb? Gracious!” The doctor tut-tutted, as though disapproving of her for mentioning a part of the female body which ought not to be spoken of in polite company. “No-no,” Miss Lambert,” he told Caroline. “I have no need to do such an exam—no, I can diagnose and treat you in a much more amiable manner, I assure you.”
“Wha?” Caroline peered at him, wishing there didn’t appear to be two fussy men facing her instead of just one. “Wha kind of doctor’re you, anyway?” she asked.
“Why, a phrenologist, of course!” Doctor Lovings said proudly. “Now, Mrs. Lambert, if you would be so good as to have your maid remove your daughter’s hairpins, we can proceed.”
A phrenologist? Caroline was trying fuzzily to remember where she had heard that word before and what it meant while Mary Ann took the pins out of her hair, letting it flow free around her shoulders. When Dr. Lovings started feeling all over her head and probing her skull with his short, stubby fingers, she suddenly understood.
“You’re one of those people who thunks….thinks they can tell someone’s person…personality by feeling the bumps on their head,” she finally managed to say. She was definitely talking more clearly, she thought hopefully. Maybe the stuff they had put in her tea was wearing off. But her body still felt weak and clumsy.
“Quite right—only I do not only think, I know.” Dr. Lovings spoke with complete self-assurance as he continued to fondle her head. “The science of Phrenology is well established and it will help me diagnose you now and perhaps relieve your poor Ma-ma’s suffering and anxiety about you.”
“Oh yes, I do hope so!” the other mother fluttered her hands in evident agitation. “Can you tell anything just yet, Doctor?”
“Indeed I can. Her mastoid processes are greatly enlarged and I’m afraid the occipital bump is also somewhat swelled.” He looked up at the other mother. “You told me, Madam, that your daughter suffered a lightning strike not two days ago?”
“Yes, yes—and she hasn’t been the same since!”
“I should imagine not. You see, I believe that the electrostatic shock she received was enough to cause her brain to swell—which is why parts of her skull are so prominent at the moment. These swellings are located in the areas of the brain responsible for caution and reason and they are most definitely affecting her personality. To wit—she is now acting in a reckless manner where once she was cautious and she is being unreasonable and willful in her actions and mannerisms, when once she was the soul of modesty and obedience.”
“Yes, yes—that’s it exactly!” the other mother exclaimed. “Oh Dr. Lovings—how well you understand!”
“Science, dear Lady.” The doctor cleared his throat modestly. “It reveals to us the wonders of the human form as well as the sorrows of human frailty.”
“Pseudo-science, you mean,” Caroline said, sitting up with a lurch and leaning away from his probing fingers. She was definitely feeling more clear-headed now, thank goodness, though her body was behind her brain and mouth in getting rid of the drug they’d given her. She wished she could get up and walk away from the doctor and the other mother, but her legs still didn’t want to work.
Dr. Lovings frowned at her. “Excuse me, young lady? What did you say?”
“I said phrenology is junk science without a shred of evidence to back it up,” Caroline declared, frowning back at him. “The idea that you can tell anything at all about someone’s personality and character traits by feeling the bumps on their head is ludicrous.”
“I beg your pardon!” Dr. Lovings looked well and truly offended now. “My dear young lady, perhaps you should not speak of things you do not understand.”
“I understand plenty,” Caroline snapped. She was fully in control of herself now—her mind and mouth anyway—and thoroughly fed up with this nonsense. “I understand that you’re a quack my mother brought in to tell her exactly what she wants to hear so she can feel justified in trying to control me.”
“Oh dear, oh dear!” the other mother exclaimed, fanning herself rapidly. “You see what I have to contend with, Doctor! She’s so contentious since she was struck by lightning. It’s as though her personality was somehow completely reversed!”
“I see. Yes, I see,” Doctor Lovings mused, stroking his mustache meditatively as he studied Caroline who was still glaring up at him. “You know, Madam,” he said to the other mother. “It occurs to me that since electricity did the damage in the first place, it might be able to reverse it as well. I have, at my clinic, a brand new hydroelectric tub. The patient is placed in the tub, which is filled with warm water which has an electrical current running through it and the effects are often quite—”
“What?” Caroline stared at him in disbelief. “You want to put me in an electrified bathtub? Are you hearing yourself? How many patients have you electrocuted in that thing?”
Doctor Lovings gave her a disapproving look but directed his remarks to the other mother.
“I can see why you are so eager to have your sweet, tractable girl back and retire this contentious shrew. Happily, I believe I can clear my schedule this very afternoon so that we may immerse her in the hydroelectric tub at your earliest convenience. The treatment takes only a couple of hours.”
“What? No! No, I’m not getting into an electric bathtub!” Caroline exclaimed but the other mother and Dr. Lovings ignored her.
“My dear Doctor, I fear that will not work,” the other mother said anxiously. “We are scheduled to be in the public park this very afternoon at two so that Caroline can officially announce her annulment to that awful Kindred who forced her to Join with him, using that antiquated law we all so abhor. And I do not think…do not know…” She pulled out a lace handkerchief and began to weep copiously into it.
“There, there, my dear Lady.” Doctor Lovings patted her consolingly on one shaking shoulder.
“I do not know how it is to be managed when Caroline is acting like this—when she is acting against her own best interests,” the other mother continued at last. “Why, she is declaring she wants to stay with that horrid Kindred—instead of making a much more advantageous match with a Viscount of our acquaintance, who has shown unwavering interest in her, despite her odd behavior of late.”
“Ah, a most vexatious problem.” The doctor nodded sagely. “I see your quandary, Madam. You have only a short time period in order to compel your daughter to act for her own benefit but the galvanization her brain has undergone due to the lightning has addled her wits and rendered her unable to act in her own best interests.”
“That’s bullshit!” Caroline said angrily.
The blood drained from the other mother’s face.
“Caroline!” she gasped. “Your language!”
“To Hell with my language! Just because I don’t agree with you, doesn’t make me mentally incompetent,” Caroline said, through gritted teeth. She wished she could get up and march out of the room but her legs were still refusing to obey her. “I don’t want to leave Richard because I love him,” she told the other mother and the doctor. “And I have no interest in Lord Harkens. He’s twice my age and he keeps pictures of his dead wife hanging in the bedroom. I don’t like him!”
“You would if you knew what was good for you!” the other mother snapped. Turning to the doctor, she clasped her hands at her chest in a beseeching way. “Oh please, Doctor Lovings—can’t you help us? I must find a way to make Caroline biddable at least until you can cure her with your hydroelectric tub.”
“Well…” Doctor Lovings was stroking his mustache again and looking at Caroline thoughtfully. “In addition to being a world-renowned phrenologist, I also happen to be something of an expert chemist. There is a new compound I have been developing —it has an opiate base—which induces a kind of waking torpor. It is inhaled like ether but it does not put the patient to sleep. Rather it allows them to move and speak—albeit in a rather slow fashion. And it makes them highly susceptible to suggestion.”
The other mother looked excited.
“So she would be able to move around the reception at the park but she would say what I told her to say?”
“Exactly.” Doctor Lovings smiled and nodded. “It doesn’t last very long, so it is a short-term solution at best. But, as you say, it could suffice until we can get your daughter to my clinic for a more permanent cure.”
Caroline could see where this was going and she didn’t like it one bit.
“No!” she said as forcefully as she could. “No—I refuse to be drugged again! You let me go right now or I’ll—”
But Doctor Lovings had already withdrawn a brown glass bottle and a cotton rag from his black satchel. Quick as a wink, he doused the rag and pushed it into Caroline’s face.
“No!” She tried to fight him, lurching away from his hand, desperate to get away.
“Hold her, if you please,” Dr. Lovings said grimly, nodding at the other mother and Mary Ann, who had been standing silently in the corner all this time.
At once, the two of them took her by the shoulders and held her in place. Mary Ann even gripped the back of her neck so she couldn’t jerk her head away.
“No—no!” Caroline screamed again. But her last “no” ended in a whisper as the soaked rag was pressed against her mouth and nose and the choking, sickly-sweet fumes went down her throat. Still, she tried to struggle but then she heard Dr. Lovings’ voice.
“Don’t fight anymore, my dear,” he said. “This is for your own good.”
Suddenly, Caroline found that she couldn’t fight anymore, even if she tried. And she did try, but somehow the command he had given her seemed to outweigh the demands of her own body.
Trapped in Time Page 21